Toronto Drayage

P

PackRat

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May 26, 2008
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Afternoon all,

Here's another one I'm looking for input on. We received in an invoice for local Drayage from CN yard and we were assessed wait time and a missed pickup charge for the same load. Driver waited for a couple hours and CN couldn't find the container so he had to return the next day. Wouldn't it be one or the other? Both are supposed to compensate the driver for his time but both for the same load? Thoughts appreciated.
PR
 
PackRat said:
Afternoon all,

Here's another one I'm looking for input on. We received in an invoice for local Drayage from CN yard and we were assessed wait time and a missed pickup charge for the same load. Driver waited for a couple hours and CN couldn't find the container so he had to return the next day. Wouldn't it be one or the other? Both are supposed to compensate the driver for his time but both for the same load? Thoughts appreciated.
PR
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Someone gave the instructions for the carrier to go there and do that work. If the driver waited then pay detention. If the driver had to return the next day then pay the layover. If CN made the mistake and couldn't find the can bill CN.

Whoever made the mistake should ultimately pay. That's the only way the mistakes will get identified and hopefully resolved so they don't happen again. Money paid out is the best tool for fixing problems.
 
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Ah the Joy of CN. You go and wait in line for an hour to get to the computer to Ingate. You get your location and go there and guess what no container there. You hopefully flag down a CN Supervisor and they cant find it either. After 2-3 hours of looking and going back to the help desk still no luck. You can try and bill CN, but I have never seen them pay anyone for not being able to find a container.
 
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Shakey said:
Railways same as customs brokers you have to fight them via clients if you are not the direct customer.
But that still doesn't mean they will care!
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Amen to that! That is the only way to get it resolved.

I used to work for a company that produced and delivered product to Zellers DC in Toronto. We hired carriers to deliver the freight but every time, and I mean every time, Zellers did not honour or respect the appointment schedule. There were even times where the carrier sat on the load only to deliver the following day. There were many discussions with Zellers but never anything fruitful until we refused to deliver to them anymore. We were lucky that we had a product that they wanted. Finally the issue made it to someone who wanted to do something about it. The solution - Zellers would pick up the freight from our DC. We did not allow that until compensation for all the extra time paid to carriers at the Zellers DC was negotiated. It took about 10 weeks but they got it sorted out.

Shakey is right, bill the customer for their choice to use the railway. They made the decision to save the money by using the rail. You need to let them know the true cost of that decision.
 
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CN will compensate if you have a good relationship with them. Other than that, they wont be paying for jack! I have gotten charges reversed/compensated in the past by CN so its worth a try.
 
CN won't do squat...they even charged their $100 RV cancellation fee when they couldn't find the container and driver finally ran out of hours at 6pm and had to leave :(
 
You have to try but again, difficult if you do have support of your direct customer.

Had a customer once we had a great relationship with. We delivered all over Ontario for them. Had a receiver that was notorious for not giving a thought to appointment times and making trucks wait. One day we got the jerk around, reached out to our customer, informed them that we were not being unloaded and hadn't even hit a door 1 hour after our appointment time. He said bill me for waiting. Nice of him but I explained, it wasn't necessarily the waiting time but it was screwing the next customer and what we had planned for the truck after. His response was...."pull him out and bring it back to our plant". We did just that. He gets a call from the receiver, upper management and the buyer, the next day telling him they were in violation of their agreement and the fine was in the 6 figure range as per their contract. I believe the product was already advertised and gone to print. He corrected them and stated, we did try and deliver. Our carrier was at your facility, checked in through the gate 20 minutes prior to his appointment. He gave them the gate receipt number and times we checked in and checked out. Told them, he did his job, the carrier did theirs but they didn't do theirs. He was happy to have the product re shipped but there would be additional charges.

We delivered the next day, were in a door at our appointment time, unloaded in under and hour and out of there. From that day forward, at this receiver, we were always out in under 2 hours from the appointment time. When it comes down from the top I guess it has weight.

Sorry about the long story but this happens when your direct customer values your service. If they don't value you they will never go to bat for you.
 
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Wow.. some things never change. I recall picking up trailers at CN Intermodal Brampton back in the mid 90s.. A few times they would direct me into their yard, and after driving back and forth looking for my trailer number I'd go back to the gate house where someone would cheerfully tell me "oh.. it's still on the train!". Well... sometimes not so cheerfully..
 
Freight Broker said:
;)Wow.. some things never change. I recall picking up trailers at CN Intermodal Brampton back in the mid 90s.. A few times they would direct me into their yard, and after driving back and forth looking for my trailer number I'd go back to the gate house where someone would cheerfully tell me "oh.. it's still on the train!". Well... sometimes not so cheerfully..
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Damn, you shoud asked me then.. I was around there, eh..
 
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